Getting the most out of your marketing campaign is every marketers desire. With so many new ways to connect with consumers-what is the best way to accomplish engagement? I have taken the 6 most commonly used traditional marketing campaigns and suggested inbound marketing elements that will improve overall reach and return.
1. Seasonal product or service (weather triggered) program: TRADITIONAL campaigns will include a Billboard, TV, radio or print ad that prompts a consumer to call an 800# to get a deal, or book service. 800 #s and call centers are hard to manage, let alone track what source the lead is coming from. INBOUND will allow you to create a custom landing page to drive people to via the traditional messaging you are going to continue to use. This way the consumers get to your website, and that landing page engagement becomes track able and you can refer back to source origin so you know what avenues are producing leads, without the guess work of relying on the consumer to tell you "where they heard or saw " your ad.
2. Charitable donation/cause marketing: TRADITIONAL campaigns will include direct mail pieces, PSAs on radio, segments via live TV and news outlets that drive folks to send a donation via mail, or call in a donation via a telethon program. INBOUND will allow for you to create a custom call to action on your website, to prompt people to donate online immediately. You can also look at using text to donate services, or create a landing page for interested donors to sign up to get a call back to take a donation over the phone if they still want to be a little more old school. Adding folks to your database is the most important thing for non-profits to do to build their donor base, so take advantage of the digital tools that can help make this a seamless process for all. The easier it is to donate, the more chance new money can come in, and you also don't have to worry about data entry issues down the line.
3. Event promotion/Trade Shows: TRADITIONAL methods for driving event engagement include radio, TV, Billboard, print ads, direct mail, cold calling/bought email lists, and grassroots signage efforts. These are good options to use, depending on the type of event, but lack of processes during post event follow up can negate the event investment return. Using INBOUND methods to keep track of consumers that come by your booth, or sign up for an event, is important to ensure you have a lead group to follow up with post event. Create a series of follow up emails, via email marketing, and nurture these leads through to closed customers. Using social media platforms to promote, pre, during, and post event will also encourage others to tag your event, via custom hashtags, as well as share with their networks by posting. Tapping into that power of all participants networks is stuff marketing campaigns just cant buy.
4. Post Sales Engagement: This is always an area of opportunity many clients can increase revenue from if they put focus to it. Think of how hard it may be to get new leads and consumers to use your services, so why do many times, once that lead is now a customer are they forgotten about? This is leaving money on the table for sure, and leaving yourself open for a high churn rate due to them feeling unloved. Upselling and post sales engagement in the TRADITIONAL sense may have been a repeat user coupon via direct mail or email, or a phone call every quarter from an account manager to "check in" on things. These aren't solid ways to keep customers. INBOUND allows you to track how customers want to be communicated with, and keep a pulse of high engagement post sale behavior based on things they actually are doing. By segmenting your database into a variety of customer smart lists (somewhat engaged to power user status) you can continue to communicate, and even do R & D through existing customers to drive new ideas and service/product offerings for the future. Take advantage of the customer base you have, turn them to advocates, and watch your company grow on both the new lead, and existing customer base side.
5. Branding Campaigns: This is a hard one, many companies understand they have to stay top of mind, and 10 years ago that was accomplished through a series of "branding" campaigns that meant you flooded a variety of media outlets with your name, tag, and logo. I have a hard time justifying the cost of marketing just to market to my clients. Shifting the mentality from blasting your name out to consumers who may never be interested in your services wastes resources, and money. Instead companies can shift that investment to other more profitable lead generation programs and campaigns. Sure, the naming rights for a baseball stadium are pretty cool, but behind that naming rights program, there has to be lots of activation campaigns to engage folks while they are there. For example; if you are in the TD BankNorth arena, every patron that enters the game should be presented with an opportunity to sign up for a free checking account, or consider using a money market or loan service the bank is offering. There can't just be spend without activation. INBOUND helps drive consumers back to the website to explore certain services. You could also create a social campaign where a patron that tags themselves in a photo with the TD BankNorth sign behind them enters to win 2 free tickets to a game later in the season. These types of activation programs still may not make the needle move a ton for direct response, BUT it does set you up for more success than simply "branding" your name.
6. Enter to win promotions/vendor UPC contesting: TRADITIONAL methods for companies have included raffles, mail in proof of purchase/UPC, in store RTW (register to win) boxes, on site 'must be present' contesting programs, and more. With mobile technology you can offer engagement for your contests via an online landing page where people enter to win their information. You can set rules for 1x daily entry, or one time per contest entry-however you decide to structure it-with INBOUND marketing your leads, and their activity is all trackable. Not only do you save time on lead entry from paper submissions, but the process is seamless for the end user and for the marketing/sales team to follow up post contest.
By structuring your campaigns a little differently, this will allow for ROI trackability, a clearer path for the consumer to be nurtured through, and a better understanding of where your leads are in the sales process.
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